


just a spoonful of cyanide

by embraidery



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Cheftide Mini-Challenge, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29253912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embraidery/pseuds/embraidery
Summary: Six pastry chefs working against the clock, one pastry chef working to bring down their sugary empire.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10
Collections: New Year's Resolutions 2021





	just a spoonful of cyanide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [qkind](https://archiveofourown.org/users/qkind/gifts).



> I loved the request for a baking setting! I'm afraid I probably put too much thought into the baking side of things haha. The recipe they're making is the Passion Flower dessert from Masterchef that has a million steps -- very ripe for sabotage. I hope you enjoy!

_ if they successfully serve the flower desserts, we’re toast. do whatever it takes, get it? _

_ got it, boss! those flowers will NOT come out alive. _

\---

“Alright, people!” Purple claps her hands. “T-minus three hours until the big reveal. This will be plenty of time to get all the flower desserts ready.” She pushes her glasses up her nose and looks down at her clipboard. “Orange, can we get you on the wafers and the sponge? Perfect. Let’s have Red on the chocolate and sugar work: the flowers, stamens, and petals. Yellow, you can handle making the passionfruit curd? Then Cyan, let’s have you on the coconut mousse. Green, you’re on the jelly sheet and the passionfruit centres. That leaves the sauce to Pink. Any questions, check the whiteboard.” Purple gestures behind her. “Chop chop, people!”

Yellow, the newest pastry chef, nervously shifts her weight. 

Pink pats her shoulder. “You got this, Yellow, yeah?”

Yellow nods and rolls up her sleeves.

\---

It doesn’t take long for the kitchen to fill with delicious tropical smells. Green’s at his workstation dissolving sugar in water, an open can of passionfruit puree all ready to go. He adds the simple syrup and xanthan gum that will help it set. He makes three batches of the puree, pouring each one into moulds and putting it into the freezer before starting the next one. 

“Behind!” Cyan calls, walking behind Green, and Green presses himself against the freezer. Cyan shakes a packet of gelatine at Green. “Thickening agent team!” they say cheerfully.

Green tilts his canister of xanthan gum towards Cyan. “Thickening agent team! Hey, can you pass me some of that? Gotta do the jelly sheet.” 

Cyan tears open the packet with a crinkling of plastic and gives Green several sheets of gelatine. “That enough?”

“Yeah, cheers.”

Cyan and Green walk back to the stovetops together. Green gathers up his dishes and takes them to one of the worktop sinks, where Orange washes her own mixing bowl. Sudsy water flies everywhere as she squeezes the sponge too hard.

“Oops, sorry, Green!”

“You don’t have to rush!” Green chuckles, wiping suds from his eyes with the back of his wrist. 

Orange sighs and dries her hands with a paper towel. “I know it’s just sponge, but I really want to impress the boss!”

“You’ll do fine.” Green glances over at the oven, where he can see a tray of sponge. “That first one’s smelling good already!”

Orange smiles. “Thanks, Green.”

“No problem.” 

Orange walks to the pantry to gather the ingredients for the sesame wafers. Red looks up from scooping white chocolate chips into a bowl and smiles at Orange.

“How ya going, kiddo?” Red asks.

“Good, I think! Just have to grab the stuff for the sesame wafers.” Sesame seeds, icing sugar, flour… Orange reaches up for the sugar. Her hands come away covered in a white powder. 

“Huh?” Orange examines the powder before dusting her hands on her apron. She uses a stepstool to clean up the mess. The lid on the cream of tartar can is slightly open, so Orange presses it closed. She takes her ingredients back to her workstation and starts zesting her lime.

Red comes back from the stovetop with a bowl of white chocolate in hand. She plops it on the counter across from Orange and stirs more chocolate into it. Her work station’s covered with thin plastic stencils, some shaped like flower petals. She smooths the chocolate over the stencil with an angled spatula.

Across the room, Green opens the freezer to check on his passionfruit flower centres. He frowns and pulls the tray out, setting it on the counter. “These aren’t thickening!”

Purple walks over and peers at the passionfruit puree through her glasses. She and Green confer in low voices. Purple sticks her finger in one of the centres to check the texture, then pops her finger into her mouth.

“Did you put cream of tartar in this?” Purple asks, spitting out the mouthful of fruit puree.

“No, I used xanthan gum!” Green says, picking up the can and peering inside. He dips a finger into the white powder and puts it in his mouth. “...That’s cream of tartar,” he admits, turning red.

“The lid of the cream of tartar can was open when I went in there,” Orange says, looking up from her sesame wafers. “I got it all over my hands!”

Purple sighs. “Did someone mix up the cans?”

“Are you sure you didn’t put the wrong lids on the cans, Orange?” Red asks gently.

“I--I don’t think so!” Orange falters.

“Cyan went in there right before Orange,” Green offers.

“Red was in the pantry after me!” Cyan points out.

“It doesn’t really matter.” Purple claps her hands again. “Just be careful, people. Double-check everything. Green, you’ll need to make those again.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Green sighs.

Purple peers at them all over her glasses before disappearing into her office.

Orange goes back to making her sesame dough, still a little shaken. She calms down as she washes her dishes, waiting for the dough to chill in the fridge. She goes and checks that the oven’s ready to go. It feels a little hot, but the dial says it’s at the right temperature, and they just got the ovens fine-tuned a few weeks ago. She takes her time scooping little balls of the mix onto lined cookie sheets before sliding them into the oven.

The kitchen’s pleasantly busy and filled with steam. Delicious smells rise from stovetops and ovens. Orange hums a little tune as she cuts her sponge into circles. Over at the stovetops, Red melts isomalt and sugar to make flower petals.

Orange lifts her head and sniffs the air just as her timer for the wafers goes off. She runs to the oven and pulls open the door. A cloud of acrid smoke engulfs her head. She closes her eyes and coughs, blindly groping for the trays of wafers with her potholder.

“What happened?” Cyan asks, wafting the smoke away with a tea towel.

“The oven must have been too hot!” Orange wails. She checks the dial, but it’s still exactly the temperature it should be. “I don’t understand!”

Purple pokes her head out of her office. “What’s happening, people?”

“I burned the wafers,” Orange admits, eyes squeezed shut.

Purple pinches the bridge of her nose. “Luckily, that won’t take long to re-do.” She disappears back into her office.

Orange grabs a glass of cold water and drinks it slowly, trying to calm down.

_ Wee-oooh, wee-oooh!  _ shrieks the fire alarm.

“Everyone out!” Purple shouts. The bakers all file out, grumbling and swearing under their breath (or, in the case of Red, not under her breath). 

The fire marshal comes out to tell them it was a false alarm. As they go back into the room, the smoke billowing out of pots on the stove sets off the alarm again. Purple turns on the fans and stands in the middle of the room, hands on her hips.

“Did you all wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” she demands.  _ “Focus,  _ people!”

Orange bursts into tears. 

Green puts his arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Orange, this isn’t your fault!”

“I burned the wafers!” she wails.

“She was the only one not cooking when the fire alarm went off,” Cyan points out.

“Oh, shut up,” Red says, though she gives Orange a once-over.

“Can’t we just get back to it?” Pink speaks up.

Purple presses her fingertips together. “Orange, I think you should take a break. Pink, you take the sponge, and Cyan, you do the wafers.”

Cyan heads to the pantry to pick up the ingredients they need for the wafers. On the way, they slide their phone out of their pocket.

_ Status update? _

_ One baker down. Best sabotage ever!! _

  
  



End file.
